Immunotherapy refers to modulating a persons immune responses to impart a desirable therapeutic effect. Immunotherapeuties refer to those compositions which, when administered to an individual, modulate the individual's immune system to decrease symptoms and causes of symptoms brought on by undesirable immune responses or to alleviate symptoms or eliminate/reduce causes of symptoms by increasing desirable immune responses. In some cases, immunotherapy is part of a vaccination protocol in which the individual is administered a vaccine that results in the individual being exposed to an immunogen. In such cases, the immunotherapeutic increases the immune, response and/or selectively enhance a portion of the immune response which is desirable to treat or prevent the particular condition, infection or disease. In some cases, immunotherapeutics are delivered free of immunogens. In such cases, the immunotherapeutics are provided to modulate the immune system by either decreasing or suppressing immune responses, enhancing or increasing immune response, decreasing or suppressing a portion of immune system, enhancing or increasing a portion of the immune system or decreasing or suppressing immune response, enhancing or increasing immune responses. In some cases, immunotherapeutics include antibodies which when administered in vivo, bind to proteins involved in modulating immune responses. The interaction between antibodies and such proteins results in the alteration of immune responses. If the protein is involved in autoimmune disease, the antibodies can inhibit its activity in that role and reduce or eliminate the symptoms or disease.
Vaccines are useful to immunize individuals against target antigens such as allergens, pathogen antigens or antigens associated with cells involved in human diseases. Antigens associated with cells involved in human diseases include cancer-associated tumor antigens and antigens associated with cells involved in autoimmune diseases.
In designing such vaccines, it has been recognized that vaccines which produce the target antigen in the cell of the vaccinated individual are effective in inducing the cellular arm of the immune system. Specifically, live attenuated vaccines, recombinant vaccines which use avirulent vectors and DNA vaccines all lead to the production of antigens in the cell of the vaccinated individual which results induction of the cellular arm of the immune system. On the other hand, sub-unit vaccines which comprise only proteins and killed or inactivated vaccines, which do induce a humoral response, do not induce good cellular immune responses.
A cellular immune response is often necessary to provide protection against pathogen infection and to provide effective immune-mediated therapy for treatment of pathogen infection, cancer or autoimmune diseases. Accordingly, vaccines which produce the target antigen in the cell of the vaccinated individual such as live attenuated vaccines, recombinant vaccines which use avirulent vectors and DNA vaccines are preferred.
While such vaccines are often effective to immunize individuals prophylactically or therapeutically against pathogen infection or human diseases, there is a need for improved vaccines. There is a need for compositions and methods which produce an enhanced immune response.